Trade Promotion Marketing and Optimization, with other news and commentary for channel professionals

Monday, June 25, 2007

The Times They Are A-Changin'

Bob Dylan didn't have channel structures much in mind back in the sixties when he wrote that famous song, but the music reference is apropos: What has happened is that one group of channel interlopers has been passed by another in the music biz.

I've posted on the destruction of the music retail channel before -- the death of stores such as Wherehouse and most recently Tower, killed off by mass merchants. But now we're seeing another whole channel, or two, taking a big piece of music retailing.According to NPD Group, ITunes has moved past Amazon and Target to take third place in music retailing. The top five are:

Wal-Mart - 15.8% market share

Best Buy - 13.8%

ITunes - 9.8%

Amazon - 6.7%

Target - 6.6&

Just for old-times sake, I think I'll listen to Subterranean Homesick Blues on my Ipod.